Bridge
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.There were several points of interest in this deal from the Generali European Championships, with both the bidding and the play proving critical.
First, South's opening bid: should he open One Heart or One Diamond, planning either to rebid passively in diamonds, or reverse with his limited point count? With varying degrees of confidence, most Souths ended in Four Hearts after East had overcalled in Clubs and been supported. As you can see, Five Clubs would have been a good sacrifice for East-West, with a good spade guess restricting the loss to 200 points.
It would have been a good sacrifice, however, only if North-South could make Four Hearts. If West ignores his partner's overcall and leads the 4J, the game has no play. Another thought is that if West does decide to lead a club, the king is his best shot - hoping to retain the lead and judge the best continuation.
After a club lead, South's heart game should have been safe. It required careful timing to go down! But losing lines were found at more than one table.
At the table I watched, South ruffed, cashed the !A, then followed with three rounds of diamonds while East discarded clubs. Now a spade lead from West finished matters. As you can see, simply pushing on with the trumps would have ensured 10 tricks
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments